When poured onto cereal, what is milk?
Asked by
J0E (
13172
)
May 11th, 2010
A. a beverage
B. a broth
C. a sauce
via this video
This seemingly simple question led to a massive debate last night. I heard many different theories but yet none seem to convince me of either choice. So what do you think? Are you Team Beverage, Team Broth, or Team Sauce?
Please plead your case for whichever you choose. Let’s get ready to rumble!
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84 Answers
I’ve never thought about this before. It’s always just been milk.
I suppose I would go with a sauce. I think it loses the beverage category since you are using it to eat your cereal. Broth reminds me more of soup. So I’d go with sauce. You are technically putting it on top of your cereal (similar to using spaghetti sauce on spaghetti noodles).
It’s still a beverage Especially if you drink it out of the bowl when all the cereal is gone.
Edit: It’s definitely not a broth. Definition for broth: “1. The water in which meat, fish, or vegetables have been boiled; stock. 2. A thin, clear soup based on stock, to which rice, barley, meat, or vegetables may be added.”
It’s a dressing. So, I guess that means I’m on Team Sauce, but I’d rather be on Team Condiment.
@J0E A beverage is defined as “any one of various liquids for drinking, usually excluding water.” So sure, a soup can be a beverage if you drink it.
I don’t drink the (soy) milk, so it’s not a beverage.
A broth is a liquid that comes from adding stock/meat to water for purposes of soup. The milk isn’t there to be a basis for another dish, so I say no to the broth idea.
A sauce is an addition to the flavor of the main dish and that is not what milk does to cereal, so no to sauce, as well.
For me it’s a means to add moisture so the cereal is easier to eat. What is the food equivalent of that?
Some people put water on cereal.
Additionally, I don’t think it would be a sauce because I think of a sauce as something you put over food. With cereal and milk, yes you pour the milk over the cereal (or at least that’s my method), but the milk isn’t a sauce to the cereal, it’s more like something the cereal is in.
Mutating Liquid.
Starts as milk, becomes condiment, ends as beverage. possibly mutating further to gas at a later date
@tinyfaery But you could argue that milk adds flavor to the cereal. It is possible to eat cereal without milk.
@Allie During the time you are eating the cereal with the milk though, you aren’t drinking it at that point. So, at that moment when you are eating the milk or cereal, would it be a broth or soup (since you aren’t drinking it).
@J0E You could argue it, but you would be wrong. ;) I don’t think the milk is there to add flavor.
I eat dry cereal all the time.
@Seaofclouds It’s neither. Neither of those definitions fits what milk is to the cereal at all. It’s just a liquid, until you drink it. Then it’s still a liquid, but it’s also a beverage. Shoot me, but I think things can be classified in more than one category.
Technically, since it’s a liquid, wouldn’t your consumption of milk in any form be considered drinking it?
I think it’s definitely either a broth or a sauce. Milk is a beverage but it is not being used as a beverage when you pour it in a bowl with something else. I’m Team Sauth.
I say it’s a hydration element.
@J0E You need to re-read the definition of what a broth and sauce is, kiddo.
Why is there an exact same question posted again by another user?
@Allie: What do you think a sauce is?
I think it’s a beverage if you drink it out of the bowl even though I think that’s disgusting and I think it’s a sauce when you pour it over the cereal. So I guess, depending on who you are, it could be either or both. I’m personally on Team Sauce.
Although I do always have a glass of milk along with my bowl of cereal and milk
@EmpressPixie Dictionary.com says that a sauce can be defined as “1. any preparation, usually liquid or semiliquid, eaten as a gravy or as a relish accompanying food.” I guess that describes what milk is in this case pretty well. Until all the cereal is gone and you drink it, then it’s a beverage… but also a liquid.
It’s a liverauce.
It is a protective shield against Capt.Crunch injuries to the roof of one’s mouth.
Cereal = Noodles
Milk = Broth
@Allie, some people wipe their plate clean of any stray condiment. Drinking the grainy milk from your cereal bowl is no less unacceptable at a fine dining establishment and no different from wiping your plate clear of salad dressing or hollandaise sauce with a bit of bread. All this points to TEAM SAUCE.
I think you’re all just milking this for all it’s worth.
I only eat cereal dry and drink milk in a glass to go along with it, so for me it is a beverage.
I think it’s still a beverage even mixed in with the cereal.
Cow Gravy! If you are Italian it would be gravy! I know this old Italian and the only “sauce” is moms spaghetti sauce every thing else is gravy! Pass the cow gravy please!!
@EmpressPixie What would you consume the milk with? There is no bread, the cereal is gone. If you drink it on it’s own, it’s a beverage.
@Allie: Except it’s not just milk. It’s grainy milk or chocolate milk—milk inherently changed by the cereal it coated.
@lucillelucillelucille Tungsten carbide isn’t even strong enough to protect against Cap’n Crunch injuries to the roof of the mouth!
@EmpressPixie So if you add chocolate powder mix to a glass of milk (like you added cereal to alter the bowl of milk) is that milk a condiment too?
To me, it is the same thing it is before poured onto cereal, nasty. I don’t drink milk.
@Allie, No because then the chocolate powder is the condiment, but the main dish is still the milk. Can things move between states? Absolutely—but not in the same dish. The milk remains altered by the leftovers of the cereal. The main dish was still the cereal and the milk was still the condiment. Kind of like coleslaw. It’s a salad on its own, but if you add it to a BBQ sandwich, it becomes a condiment. If you scrape it off the sandwich, it’s not a salad again because it’s got BBQ all over it. It’s the condiment that you scraped off.
cole slaw on sloppy joes is about the best eating gets.
@EmpressPixie I disagree. Why couldn’t it be a salad with BBQ sauce on it? Maybe the BBQ sauce is now the condiment on the coleslaw. If you take the coleslaw back off the BBQ sandwich, isn’t the salad back to being the main dish? It’s no longer a condiment to the sandwich.
Side note: why would anyone put coleslaw ON a bbq sandwich?
who cares what you call it. Let’s eat!
Well, if poured on Cocoa Krispies it’s chocolate milk.
Mmmmmm
Its a marinade. @Allie Slaw on bbq sandwiches is how they are traditionally served. It is sort of like how sauerkraut is included on a rueben sandwich.
…I think @buster got it more accurate than the three original examples.
My vote is still hydration element.
I think it becomes an ingredient.
@EmpressPixie: I didn’t look it up, but to me, a marinade is a liquid you soak the food in to make it taste better and more tender and juicy. Which is exactly what milk does.
@poofandmook Exactly. And a lot of people use salad sauce as a marinade. They also use soy sauce in their marinades. You can also get sauces that are either for putting on food after it is cooked _or_marinading it in the sauce aisle at the store. Ergo, marinades are sauces, milk is a marinade—sure, I’ll go that route—and therefore milk is a sauce.
Actually, I think marinades are condiments as well, but this logic works for me.
@poofandmook I can’t stand it when my cereal gets soft. I add as little milk as possible and scarf it down fast so marinade wouldn’t cut it for me.
@EmpressPixie: phooey on you ;)
@janbb: Not so for me. Life cereal is awesome just when it starts to get soft. Raisin Bran/Frosted Flakes too.
Well, you can see my mouthguard but I won’t share cereal with you.
Sticking with the original options…
You can rule out broth right off the bat; a broth is a liquid prepared through cooking to demonstrate a particular flavor(s) (no, pasteurization of your milk doesn’t count).
A sauce is a preparation meant to act as an accompaniment to a dish. Milk is not “prepared” in this sense (again, pasteurization doesn’t count). Though it could be argued that it is an accompaniment and the addition of sugar, for example, makes it a preparation so it can, under the correct circumstances, be a sauce.
A beverage is any liquid suitable for drinking. So long as your cereal doesn’t create an inability to drink your milk it is a beverage.
Therefore for your milk while containing cereal is circumstantially a sauce, a beverage, both, or simply a liquid.
On the other hand you could just say that if it is agreed that milk by itself is a beverage. Adding cereal to it doesn’t change the nature of the milk in any meaningful way therefore it is still milk and as such still a beverage.
Brauce and Sauth, equally.
I’m sad Joe beat me to this, we were the ones debating this last night. FOR HOURS.
I’m NF if you aren’t going to allow the real answer.
@Allie waaaaaay, waaaaaaay up there . . . no further, further, that’s it . . . .
You said ” A beverage is defined as “any one of various liquids for drinking, usually excluding water.” How can water not be a beverage? I am speechless. Water has been my beverage of choice for years now.
As for milk, reconstituted with little cereal bits, I would have to say “gravy.”
@J0E As I said before – it becomes an ingredient – as in any recipe, when you add milk and the other items, they are all ingredients, whether there are two; milk and cereal, or many.
@YARNLADY That’s like breaking it down to the next level, of course its an ingredient. What form is this ingredient in?
Ha ha ha, epic!
You are the milk to my cereal my love…
@J0E I drink your milkshake
I would suggest it is a solvent because it helps soften the cereal and make it easier to eat.
Alternately, it is a wetting agent that adds to the protein value of the food.
You guys have it all wrong.
You pour the milk in the bowl first. Then you put the cereal in, bit by bit, eating it after each bit so it stays crisp.
In other words, the milk is analogous to a soup, with the cereal as a garnish.
@Qingu: Way too much work. And consequently, way too much milk.
@Qingu – seriusly? Do you pour the milk in first? I have never done that, lol!
@Qingu so cereal is mere oyster crackers?? Do we heat the milk first??
Does anyone have any Quisp??? Who took my prize inside???
Listen you philistines. You have never truly enjoyed a breakfast or dinner of golden grahams or puffins until you do it milk first, cereal second.
First of all, the texture of the cereal pieces is important. It’s like ⅓ of the enjoyment you get from eating it. But if you leave cereal in milk for more than 1 minute, you throw that enjoyment away. It gets soggy. Who the hell likes soggy cereal? Nobody, that’s who.
Secondly, the mere fact that the question understands milk as secondary to the cereal eating experience belies a crisis of comprehension. Do you not know the joy that is sweetened, slightly thickened milk? It’s like eating ice cream. The sugars and chemical flavorings leach out of the cereal, building over time, blossoming, so to speak, into what amounts to the main attraction of the meal. (The cereal is ultimately just there for texture, since you get the flavors in the milk anyway.)
And no, you don’t heat the milk, fool! Ideally, you chill the bowls.
Its milk. Milk is a beverage. Therefore, its a beverage.
I can’t really answer this question. Here’s why:
Although cereal is cereal just by itself, I never eat cereal just by itself, so I don’t ever say “cereal and milk” to distinguish. So to me, cereal and milk just equals cereal.
So, milk, when poured on cereal, cannot be classified as anything separate. Nor can the cereal. They both become “a bowl of cereal”.
Joe asked me, “but what about spagetti sauce and noodles? Same thing, but yet we have sauce.”
To that I reply:
You can have pasta separately. You can have pasta with anything.
I suppose if you eat cereal separately, by itself, you can answer better, because it and the milk changes when you have them together.
But I don’t, so that’s why I can’t answer.
And even if I did eat cereal separately, I could still define cereal by itself as cereal, and cereal + milk as “a bowl of cereal”.
But I don’t define the milk as anything separate from the cereal…
After intense contemplation, I believe that it is a beverage. Milk is a beverage. It’s just a special sort of beverage that works well when poured into a bowl of cereal. None of its beverage-ness has been lost when it is eaten with a spoon. Beverage 4 life!
Actually, after a little more discussion, we have come to the conclusion that the milk is a beverage functioning as a sauce. That should please everybody. Except @J0E.
@Dr_Lawrence: If the milk were a solvent, that would suggest that the mixture of milk and cereal was a solution. The two of them together are plainly NOT homogeneous, thus not a solution.
Instead, when milk is poured over cereal, the milk becomes the liquid phase of heterogeneous mixture.
If is someone does not drink milk raises hand then how is milk a beverage?
It scares the heck out of me that this is one of the longest threads we’ve had recently. Just sayin”
@janbb: well, at least nobody’s fighting.
@janbb I know – I’d rather talk about pancakes – now there’s a popular subject – or maybe bacon, we all love bacon.
It all depends on why you have milk with cereal. I prefer my cereal cold and not so crunchy. Therefore—in my case—milk is a coolant and a softening agent. I usually don’t drink the dredges, so it’s not used as its traditional function as a beverage.
Though I’m kind of digging Buster’s marinade suggestion. The milk does impart a particular flavour to the cereal.
I don’t think that necessarily puts you in the Sauce camp though. Most sauces can be used as marinades. But not all marinades are sauces. For instance, I wouldn’t dip my food (function of a sauce) in a brine (example of a marinade).
Am I really answering this question at three in the morning? Goodness.
Hey, if you jsut paint the bowl with it and then lay the cereal on top, is it milk coulis?
Cheater. Faker. Lies! All lies!
It’s a medium.
Unless you’re having one of those tiny boxes of cereal, in which case it’s a small.
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